After the T20 series, Bangladesh girls defeated Pakistan by 2-1 in ODI as well. The Pakistan women’s team did not care against the Tigresses in the series decider. Bangladesh won big with the batting skills of two openers, Farzana Haque and Murshida Khatun.
In the third and last ODI of the series in Mirpur on Friday, the Tigresses won by 7 wickets with 26 balls in hand after being chased down by 167 runs given by Pakistan. Farzana and Murshida have built the foundation of a big victory by making a pair of fifties. Nashra Sandhu took 2 wickets for Pakistan.
Two Bangladeshi openers, Farzana and Murshida, started to bat against the target of 167 runs given by Pakistan. They made a pair of 125 runs in the opening.
This is Bangladesh’s highest run-scoring pair in opening in women’s ODI history. Earlier Shuktara Rahman and Sharmin Akhtar scored 113 runs as the highest pair. Farzana, who brought up a half-century, was lbw off Nashra Sandhu when the team needed just 42 runs from 90 balls to win. Before that, he played a great innings of 62 runs off 113 balls with 5 fours.
This is Bangladesh’s highest run-scoring pair in opening in women’s ODI history. Earlier Shuktara Rahman and Sharmin Akhtar scored 113 runs as the highest pair. Farzana was lbw to Nashra Sandhu when the team needed just 42 runs off 90 balls to win. Before that, he played a great innings of 62 runs off 113 balls with 5 fours.
Earlier, after winning the toss, Pakistan gave a glimpse of a big collection. But they could not go far with Nahidad’s spin cannon. Sadaf Shamas and Sidra Amin gave Pakistan 65 runs in the opening pair. Nahida Akhter brought Bangladesh back into the fight by LBWing Sadaf Shamas who scored 31 runs off 61 balls. Opener Sidra Amin made a partnership of 28 runs with Muniba Ali for the second wicket. Muniba, who scored 14 runs off 36 balls, fell victim to Swarna Akhtar for 93 runs.
After that Sidra kept one end and kept the run wheel going, but Tigress spinners Bismah Maruf, Alia Riaz, Nidar Dar and Nazia Alvira failed to accompany him. Nida Dar scored the maximum 8 runs among the four. Diana Baig was the victim of Nahida after coming to the eighth wicket and scoring 11 runs off 9 balls. Sadia Iqbal accompanied Sidra on the last wicket. Sidra remained unbeaten on 84 runs against 143 balls as a one-man army.
For Tigresses, Nahida Akhter took the maximum 3 wickets at the cost of only 26 runs in 3 maidens in 10 overs. Rabeya Khan took 2 wickets at the cost of 35 runs.
Earlier in the first match of the series, Bangladesh had to lose 5 wickets due to the failure of the batsmen. However, in the second match, with the great skill of the bowlers, the Tigresses stopped Pakistan by 169 runs with a target of 169 runs. After that, Bangladesh won the Super Over with Nahida Akhter’s great bowling and Sobana Mostari and Nigar Sultana’s heroics in batting. And today, the Tigresses won the last match of the series with the great skill of both bowling-batting departments.
After winning the T20 series with a margin of 2-1 in Chittagong, the Red Green representatives returned Pakistan empty-handed by winning the ODI series as well.
This is Bangladesh’s fourth series win in bilateral series. And Tigresses won the first series after defeating Pakistan. The girls beat them 2-0 in the two-match ODI series in 2014. In addition, in 2021, Bangladesh won the three-match series by 3-0 in Zimbabwe and in 2016, due to rain, the first two matches were washed away by rain, but Bangladesh won the series by winning the last match.
With this victory, Bangladesh has climbed to the seventh position in the points table of the ICC Women’s Championship, topping England and Australia. Bangladesh’s points in 12 matches are now 11. Australia also has 11 points in six matches. On the other hand, England’s points are 10. India is at the top with 15 points in 9 matches.
(10 November/NBW/EH)